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tcm

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I saw this saily boat in Antibes, an Oyster fiftysummink. I cd tell it was brand new cos the owner ws complaining bout he passarelle being a teensy bit bent. Actually, he seemed to be compalining "at" his partner/wife, as though it was her fault.

Anyway we got talking, and it eventually turned out that he's just flown in to Nice, and she'd sailed the boat round from essex herself. And she was quite releived cos normally in february/march there are storms. So i was quite pleased I hadn't (ealrier) been at all politically incorrect and make sexist remarks implying she hadn't got a clue, whereas in fact she's delivered the boat 200 miles. Mind you, the passarelle was indeed busted, and definitely due to reversing into the wall, which she was denying, a bit.

Oh, anyway, they said their new boat "wasn't too close-winded". So I said oh right jolly good, and I think i got clean away with not having a clue what he was on about. Whats "close-winded" then? And what's the opposite? And is it very desiarable to have it as utterly tightly winded as poss, or a bit loosely winded perhaps erm just here and there? I am assuming he was taking bout the yacht.



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Oh all right - I'll bite...

When close hauled most boats will sail somewhere between 30 and 50 to the true wind. This angle will be different for different types of boat, duifferent wind strengths, different sea states, and different sails.

Broadly speaking the closer to the wind a boat sails, the quicker she will make ground to windward. As all destinations tend to lie to windward, this is a key asset (I know gentlemen should never sail closer than their age+40 degrees, but unfortunatley I dont rate as a gentlemen).

As far as I am aware there is no specific merit at all in a boat that is not close winded - except that boats that are not close winded are quite often more comfortable sea boats, which can in the long run be more important to a long distance cruiser - but there again so can reaching port a day or two earlier.

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To bite even more, the really close winded boats are usually ones first designed for racing. They tend to have finer entries (sharper bows, for those with dirty minds) which mitigates against roomy forecabins, genoa sheeting tracks set well inboard (so no sunbathing space) and deep keels which stop them getting into shallower ports and anchorages. Also, coachroofs and topsides will be kept as low as poss to avoid excess windage (I once went aboard a 1980's Whitbread maxi which didn't have full standing headroom) which is not a trait of your average coastal or even blue water cruiser. They also have bendy rigs which needs lots of bits of string to be pulled to keep them a) working well and b) standing up. But lots of strings to pull doesn't suit ma and pa cruising boats which have thicker, less tuneable rigs, but ones which can pretty much stand-up on their own, year after year.

Sails also make a major difference in close-windedness. To eat-up to windward a racing boat will have a selection of headsails each designed to be the right shape in a given weight of wind, and which are scrapped when they begin to lose their shape. A cruiser will (generally nowadays) have a roller-blind for a headsail which is expected to work on all points of sail and all wind strengths from F1 to F8. Needless to say, in efficiency terms that sail is a compromise that doesn't work perfectly in any single set of conditions.

Naturally a straight passerelle is far more important than a good headsail!

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Re: more closewinded questions

thnaks all.

This also explains why that nanky looking skinny boat in the caribbe just wafter away upwind and i had to tack again - because the boat was more close winded. Or praps cos I was not as good at sailng. Except it seemed that regardless of what i did, our fat white boat went disctinctly more sideways than did their ketch.

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Quite so. The new race boat has a close hauled (Apparent) angle of 23 degrees up to about 10 knots - therafter the angles start to get a bit deeper. The headsail tracks are only 2 feet or so off the centreline, the carbon mast can bend up to 10", and we have an adjustable backstay, runners, checkstays and to cap it all adjustable jumpers. The scope for getting it wrong and dropping the rig is high, but so are the benefits. For a 40' boat the 7'6" waterline beam doesnt give much room for accomodation - but equally at only 4 tonnes, theres no material to build an interior with!

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Re: Nanky questions

nanky is that good or bad?
hope you had a good break.

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Re: oysterowner

he didn't sound too northern - fairly well spoken - but then I'm from Brafud and I understoof him perfectly so mebbe! he didn't eebygum at all . It was a v nice motif on the back, like a roulete table, i'm sure i've seen it somewhere before presumably on his previous boat...

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Re: oysterowner

So you met Trevor and Ann then, lovely couple, he a civil engineer, she an interior designer.

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Re: trevor and ann

ah. are they from cleckhuddersfax? I don't think so. Anyway, i believe that they are off and away somewhere else. I wonder where? send our regards.

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Err um wassa Passarelle then?

I only knew one. His name was Charlie and he played Pancho Gonzales in the longest Wimbledon match ever. 1967 I think it was.

Magic


<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://hometown.aol.co.uk/geoffwestgarth/myhomepage/travelwriting.html>Click for website!</A>
 
Re: Err um wassa Passarelle then?

You and I know it as a boarding plank - usually over the stern and often with a fancy lifting mechanism so that you don't have to lift in and stow it along the deck.

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To do with underwear

Passarelle - posh French word for a gangway mounted on the back of posh Med boats so that lady guests can arrive and depart in posh frocks without climbing over the stern rails and showing off their posh knickers to horny-handed paid hands.

Well, not until later in the evening, anyway..

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Re: Passarelles on sailing boats

This is yet another of my bugbears.

This oyster fifty whatsit proprabably cost the best part of £700k. The passeralle was indeed a boarding plank, supported at one end by a (bent) lug and at the other end by a twiddly halyard. Not very smart at all. In fact - quite poxy. Powerboats of anywhere near the same loot would have a decent foldaway or probably remote control powered passarelle, much more whizzy and smart. And before we all start shrieking about weight penalties, the boat already had a monster lunk of teak rail all around, and teak decking so the weight evidently wasn't an issue.

Unfortunately, no chance of a decent powered passarelle in an Oyster, nor indeed any chance of them letting anyone near one at a boat show without queuing for a boarding pass (?) and so no chance of a sale here. I took myself off the mailing list.

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Re: Oysters

Me thinks that these are well overpriced, and suspect that their sales attitudes go a long way to support this theory.

Went on a Benny 473 over the easter week-end in a gale 8. No probs at all, ate it up easily. and all for a measly £160-£170k. (boarding plank extra, B&Q will cut one to measure while you wait)

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